ACROSS THE NATION

Zoo details 2 new security slip-ups

January 13, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — Since a tiger escaped its pen and killed a person, a snow leopard has ripped a small opening in its cage and workers have had to dart a polar bear to goad it into its night enclosure, San Francisco Zoo officials said Friday.

A nearly 100-pound snow leopard managed to rip a 4-inch hole in its wire mesh cage Thursday afternoon and got part of its head and paw out, zoo officials said. The zookeeper could have been harmed if she had not secured the cage, but visitors were never threatened because the cage was in a larger, secured enclosure, a zoo spokesman said.

The week before, darts were used to goad a polar bear into its night enclosure so employees could work to raise the height of the walls there, a spokeswoman said. The bear never reached a height that would have allowed it to leave, she said.

Disclosure of the incidents comes after a 250-pound tiger escaped from its pen and attacked three zoo visitors Dec. 25.